File photo by Travis Rosenau Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop’s Owen Swenson carries the ball during last year’s prep football game against Cleveland on Oct. 10, 2024 at the GFW football field in Winthrop.

By Travis Rosenau

trosenau@nujournal.com

GIBBON — New name, new school, new field.

One thing that isn’t new for the Gibbon-Fairfax-Winthrop football team, however, is Firebirds head football coach Pat Hentges’ desire to see his players improve each week and compete no matter how big or strong the competition is.

Hentges knows how special this Friday’s Homecoming will be as the Firebirds take to their new turf field in Gibbon to take on a much-improved Cleveland Clippers football team that defeated GFW last year in Winthrop.

Last year the Clippers took advantage of several GFW fumbles to leave Winthrop with a 17-10 win. Hentges said he expects a physical game on Friday.

“I think the biggest thing for us to take advantage of is maintaining who we are,” Hentges said. “Cleveland, they have so much experience. People have got to remember they struggled for several years there and the kids stayed with it, worked with it, they worked hard. You can tell these kids have been in the weight room, they believe in what they’re doing, they believe in their coaches and you can see it on film. They’ve got guys in the right spots.

“High school football at our level and maybe at any level, I guess, is you just gotta clean up your mistakes and make sure you get your assignments and so that’s our focus in that part. I expect it to be a very physical game, I know that’s going to play a role. They know us, we know them.”

The Clippers, who bring a perfect 3-0 mark into Friday’s showdown with the Firebirds, are a team that went 1-8 two years before improving to 6-4 last season.

Now, the Clippers are ranked eighth in the Class A QRF rankings.

The Firebirds’ only loss this year came on the road against St. James Area, a game that saw the Firebirds allow just one touchdown but fall in a 6-0 shutout. In that game, the Firebirds converted on just 2 of 11 third downs and went 0 for 4 on fourth down. On the other side of the coin, the GFW defense forced SJA to go 1 for 9 on third down and 0 for 5 on fourth down.

Fast forwarding to last week, the Firebirds brought that same defensive pressure but got a few takeaways and points out of it also in a 20-0 home win over rival Mayer Lutheran.

“What it boils down to is the consistency with our defense,” Hentges said. “We played awesome the first three games and we know we have our hands full with Cleveland. They just have got good athletes in the right spots and they’re doing a heck of a job. As far as week to week, St. James, different team certainly than Mayer, they both have some great strengths, but what we were struggling with was just our assignments.

“And we’ve cleaned up our assignments a little bit from the second week, we still have a little ways to go. The guys watch a ton of film, they see it, they get frustrated because they know what they have to do, it’s just a matter of being more consistent offensively and trusting themselves. They trust each other, but it’s a matter of trusting themselves.”

In the win over Mayer Lutheran, Mason Ahlbrecht had two interceptions for the GFW defense and a touchdown run. One of his interceptions was a pick six.

The Firebirds have allowed just 12 points through three games after opening the season in Winthrop with a 44-6 win over Lac qui Parle Valley. Last week was GFW’s first real opportunity however, to test their pass defense and Hentges expects to see Cleveland test his team even more of through the air on Friday under junior quarterback Carson Lyons.

“We haven’t seen a ton of passing,” Hentges said. “This quarterback, by far, is the most accurate that we will have gone against up to this point, but he’s also the most experienced, so that plays a big role. If you look at a lot of our defensive plays, we really do fly to the football and teams try to take advantage of that through reverses and scissors and throwbacks and things like that, so we try to stay pretty disciplined.

“People know we’re not real tall in the corner position, but our guys are tough and luckily they have a short memory. Cleveland’s too good of a team to hold out of the end zone, I think they’re going to make plays, but we’ve got to have a short memory and then I know we’ll make some plays, too.”

The Firebirds will need to show more of the offensive punch they showed in Weeks 1 and 3 in order to keep up with the Clippers. Thankfully for the Firebirds, they have some playmakers who have made a difference so far offensively, such as quarterback Owen Swenson (7 yards per carry, two TD runs), Matthew Lee (6.0 ypc, three TD runs), Garrett Stegeman (4.8 ypc), Ahlbrecht (9.5 ypc) and Reggie Mattes (4.3 ypc).

Cleveland is averaging 33 points per game while allowing 4.3 ppg, while the Firebirds’ three-game averages show 21.3 ppg and 4 ppg allowed.

Hentges said with the size and strength the Clippers bring all around the field, he wants his team to stay disciplined and focus on their technique.

“We tell our guys everybody we play is going to be bigger than us [laughs],” Hentges said. “It’s just the truth. We have a couple of big guys, but most of the teams we play have several more than we do, so we don’t worry about that. We’ve really been focused on our technique. It’s almost boring, it sounds like coach speak, but we just do the same thing every day in hopes that repetition will breed confidence.”

With it being the first Homecoming football game at the new field in Gibbon, Hentges

“We’ve been pretty blessed,” Hentges said. “I’ve gotta tell you, knowing that last Thursday was probably going to be our last game here [in Winthrop], I just thought a lot about coach [Chuck] Sundeen, a lot of players and a lot of the community members that have really done a lot to support our program.

“We went and practiced with the varsity in [Gibbon], our JV had a game at the new field, and you got a sense of appreciation. Certainly there’s excitement and everything, but I think they really understood that, ‘Boy, we are blessed.’ We were blessed here in Winthrop, too, I love the setting of our field, as do a lot of people and such. But there’s always was constant like they say and it’s change, and we’re gonna embrace that.”